Chocolate chip cookies will forever have a place in my heart as one of the first things I ever “baked.” Nothing would make me happier than buying break-and-bake chocolate chip cookies with little peanut butter cups in them, throwing 11/12 onto a baking sheet (I’ll let you figure out what happened to the 12^th), and under-baking them by about 2 minutes. I’d have a perfect dessert ready in less than 20 minutes, hot and gooey and met with praise and excitement from everyone around the house. Making those cookies was what made me realize I love baking – the ability to make people so happy with a combination of butter, chocolate, and love was, and continues to be, my favorite feeling.

It’s hard to mess up chocolate chip cookies (see above RE: butter, chocolate, love). I’ll pretty much eat and enjoy any one you throw at me. But it only takes one really amazing chocolate chip cookie to turn you into a leeeeeetle bit of a chocolate chip cookie snob. That first sprinkle of sea salt. The giant hunks of high-quality chocolate. The crunch of a perfectly brown outside as it gives way to a deliciously melty inside. And just like that, you know all the bake-and-breaks, the mass-produced deli cookies, and the grocery store cookie trays will just never be the same again. Life-changing stuff, I know.

Personally, I like my chocolate chip cookies thick, melty, and undercooked. I also like about a solid 50-50 chocolate-to-cookie ratio. These cookies, from the infamous New York Times Jacques Torres recipe, are all these things and more. They are my perfect cookie-snob cookies. And, man, are they snobby, requiring a 36 hour lead time to refrigerate the dough, a delicate sprinkle of sea salt, and about 50 ingredients I didn’t already have (and trust me, our pantry is well stocked for baking). But they actually are really, really good. My hunch is that what is truly delicious about these cookies is not so much the recipe itself, but the technique of refrigerating the dough. I’ve never tried that before, but it really did allow the cookies to maintain a thicker shape so that they are beautifully browned on the outside and melt-in-your-mouth gooey on the inside. So gooey and chocolate-y that you wonder if perhaps it should even be called a chocolate chip cookie at all, or perhaps instead a chocolate hunk with cookie chunks? I’ll leave these deep philosophical questions for you to ponder. I’ll be busy eating the rest.

New York Times 36 Hour Chocolate Chip Cookies

2013-08-09 20:57:12

Yields 30

Truly the perfect chocolate chip cookie. Crunchy, gooey, thick and melty - well worth a 36 hour wait!

Write a review

Save Recipe

Print

Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

20 min

Prep Time

20 min

Cook Time

20 min

Ingredients

1. 2 cups minus 2 tbsp cake flour (8.5 ounces)
2. 1 2/3 cups bread flour (8.5 ounces)
3. 1 ¼ tsp baking soda
4. 1 ½ tsp baking powder
5. 1 ½ tsp coarse salt
6. 2 ½ sticks unsalted butter
7. 1 ¼ cups light brown sugar (10 oz)
8. 1 cup plus 2 tbsp granulated sugar (8 ounces)
9. 2 eggs
10. 2 tsp vanilla extract
11. 1 ¼ pounds dark chocolate chunks/disks (large pieces)
12. Sea salt, for sprinkling

Instructions

1. To begin, sift together the two types of flours, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium-sized bowl. In a separate large bowl, cream together butter and sugar (I used a hand-held mixer) until light and fluffy; this will take about 5 minutes. Add one egg, mix to blend, and then add the other and repeat. Stir in the vanilla. On low speed, add the dry ingredients from the medium-sized bowl in small amounts; mix until just combined. Stir in dark chocolate chunks and mix all together. Cover the dough by pressing plastic wrap against the surface and refrigerate for at least 24, preferably 36 hours. (It can remain in the fridge for up to 72 hours, but good luck resisting for that long.)
2. After the dough rests, preheat the oven to 350°. Lay parchment paper over a baking sheet (or sheets, depending on how many you want to make) and scoop large golf-ball-sized mounds of dough onto the sheets. I fit about 6 cookies on each baking sheet. Sprinkle the cookies with sea salt (a little goes a long way!) and bake for about 18-20 minutes.
3. Cool for at least 10 minutes, then dig in!

Notes

1. These cookies are definitely best warm + gooey, but they are also awesome room-temp (as my family, who demolished the entire batch during our 6-hour road trip, can attest).

Adapted from Jacques Torres

Adapted from Jacques Torres

My Bacon-Wrapped Life https://www.mybaconwrappedlife.com/

Share the love!